This was the first engraved sawblade I made. My neighbor gave me an old sawmill blade. I have always loved doing designs on a circle, probably from my pottery background.
My first attempt was to grind the design in very low relief. This ended quickly as the tool steel was so hard. I next tried brazing brass onto areas to color them. Also not an easy thing to do. I was familiar with heat colors or temper colors from making carving tools. When I saw the colors run on the bare steel as I tried the brazing process, it all came together. With a little experimenting a new technique for “painting” on steel was developed.
Engraved steel sawblade. 52” diameter
I’ve written more about how I got started making metal wall art here.